CAPSULE:
MADE IN DAGENHAM is a frustrating experience.
It runs very parallel to Martin Ritt's NORMA RAE and
deals with more momentous historical events, yet it
feels like weak tea next to Ritt's film. In NORMA RAE
an enraged Sally Field storms through that textile
mill. You feel her rage. And you have sequences like
that of her mother being deafened by the machinery.
NORMA RAE actually makes you angry at the factory and
its conditions, while MADE IN DAGENHAM just leaves you
miffed. It is ever so much more delicate and reserved.
Rating: high +1 (-4 to +4) or 6/10

MADE IN DAGENHAM is based on real and what would become historic
events. It is the story of a 1968 strike for equal pay by 187
women employed the Ford auto works at Dagenham, England. But there
is very little good in this film that was not done better in Martin
Ritt's NORMA RAE. Plus with British diffidence it is not nearly as
affecting as Ritt's film. Director Nigel Cole tells his story in
an entirely too reserved manner. Ritt knew how to go for the gut.
Both films are about factories going on strike. In NORMA RAE it is
at least in part about conditions that deafen people and deaden
lives. This film is also about the women unfairly being under-
classified and later about not getting equal pay with man. That is
a very real complaint, but it does not have the power of seeing
Sally Fields marching through a factory shutting down machines or
seeing her mother temporarily deafened by the din of the textile
machines.

At the center of the strike Rita O'Grady is played by Sally Hawkins
who was the (literally) irrepressible Poppy from HAPPY-GO-LUCKY.
She is just one of the girls in a hot noisy room where 187 women
sew together the fabric of car seats for new Ford cars. The room
is so hot several of the women remove their blouses. Without
losing modesty they wear only their brassieres, much to the
embarrassment of union representative Albert (Bob Hoskins). Albert
is a simple ineffectual man with a cockney accent. The women are
irritated that they are classified "unskilled" while doing tasks
for which men would be classified at least "semi-skilled." The
women decide to go on a one-day strike. With a twinkle in his eye
Albert chooses Hawkins to lead. Any good he can do for the women
has to be approved by his boss, Monty (Kenneth Cranham), an
official union leader does not want to rock the boat with a
relationship with the company that is paying him well. Little do
the women realize that their one-day strike would start a chain of
events that would have international implications.

There are many familiar faces in the film. After HAPPY-GO-LUCKY
the viewer just feels comfortable with Sally Hawkins on the screen.
This may not be a good choice because she at heart does not seem as
forceful as her historical counterpart had to have been. Hoskins
plays a nice, unglamorous bunny-like man, perfect for the role. He
is content to let other actors have the more dynamic personalities.
Miranda Richardson is intense as Barbara Castle, the secretary of
state for employment issues--torn on if she should keep a lid on
labor unrest or be indignant at the sexism inherent in the system.
Rosamund Pike plays Lisa Hopkins who formerly read history at
Cambridge, but now has been unhappily reduced to a trophy wife for
a Ford factory executive.

There are really two ways to teach history like the Ford Strike.
One can just say this was the situation and this is what people
did. Or one can go for the gut and get the audience emotionally
involved and indignant. Director Nigel Cole shows us the
conditions and then considers the injustice. The same story can be
told with force and power the way Ritt did with NORMA RAE. Cole
wants to make his women endearing. They are just the girls getting
together to have fun together to the sound of several sixties
popular songs. He forgets that we are not here to be nostalgic
about the 60s. He should be telling us why we do not want to go
back to these times with their inherent injustice. Showing how
sweet they were is akin to patronizing them. I rate MADE IN
DAGENHAM a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale or 6/10. Cockney accents
may be a little difficult to make out, particularly for some older
viewers.